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Welcome to the first in the Construct Mix Series, an irregular series of DJ mixes devoted to the world beyond the dancefloor.
From experimental electronics and dark ambient to psychedelic pop and blissed-out indie, the direction of each mix is completely of the artist's choosing.
In keeping with the series' broad remit, featured selectors will include label owners, journalists, promoters and collectors as well as DJs and producers.
The first offering comes from noted journalist, DJ and occasional producer Philip Sherburne.
We hope you enjoy...
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PHILIP SHERBURNE (XLR8R/SPIN/RA/RESOPAL/FRIEZE/SLATE)
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Philip Sherburne has been writing about electronic and experimental music for a decade and a half, contributing to a wide range of publications (SPIN, Resident Advisor, The New York Times, Interview, Slate, Frieze, XLR8R, etc.) and forging a distinct critical sensibility across columns like Pitchfork's "The Month in Techno," The Wire's "Critical Beats" and SPIN's "Control Voltage" blog, his current regular gig.
Born in Portland, Oregon, he spent the late '90s and early '00s in San Francisco before relocating to Barcelona and then Berlin, where he currently resides. Along the way, he has moonlighted as a DJ, playing rooms big and small (Panorama Bar, Watergate, Horst), and released the occasional record (Lan Muzic, Musique Risquee, Resopal Red). His sets run the gamut, from dark ambient to deep house to U.K. garage.
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ABOUT THE MIX
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When Construct approached me about doing a "home listening" mix, I knew immediately what I wanted to do for it. In previous ambient/experimental mixtapes, I had begun experimenting with making multi-track collages in Ableton, stacking denser sounds and sculpting them more fully than would be possible with just turntables and a mixer. This time, I wanted to see how far I could push that technique.
I spent a few weeks selecting tracks—current obsessions as well old favorites, some dating back to when I was just 14 years old—and began fitting them together. The music more or less dictated the structure: certain tracks fit together almost as though they were stems of the same piece, and the overall mix gradually came together in nodes and clusters. The hard part was finding elements to connect those in a way that contributed to the overall flow. My initial goal had been to have a minimum of two tracks playing at any given point, so that you never heard a song in its unmixed state. That soon proved unwieldy, however: things got too busy, and I found that I was piling things on just for the sake of piling them on. There's a stretch of the mix that more or less segues from track to overlapping track, but there are also passages of three or even four simultaneous tracks, and at one point, I added a synthesizer pedal tone to help facilitate a blend.
The title, "Radiator Songs," will become obvious from a glance at the tracklisting, but it also fit the creepy cast of the music, as well as the occasional sounds of hissing steam or bubbling water that kept cropping up. (I also thought it fitting because the mix turned out to be surprisingly tuneful in places, much more so than I had anticipated.) In the end, a kind of narrative began to suggest itself, and I had the impression of a haunted heating unit building pressure, clanking and wheezing and singing to itself in the dark. The mix was made in the depths of winter, and it probably sounds like it.
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TRACKLISTING
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Disjecta – Pit [Warp, 1996]
Svarte Greiner – Ulsokk [Type, 2006]
Sendai – Emptiness of Attention [Time 2 Express, 2012]
Oni Ayhun – OAR001-B [Oni Ayhun, 2008]
Novisad – Pflanzenwuchs [Tomlab, 2001]
Driphouse – In Peru [Spectrum Spools, 2011]
Jochem Paap – Hchm-2ngn [Fax +49-69/450464, 1999]
Seefeel – Utreat [Warp, 1995]
This Mortal Coil – Waves Become Wings [4AD, 1984]
Kate Bush – Hello Earth [EMI, 1985]
Telavy Choir – Tsintskaro [Multi Cultural Media, 1997]
Zomes – No. 1 [Thrill Jockey, 2011]
Rough Fields – Edge of the Firelight [Bomb Shop, 2011]
Shriekback – Coelecanth [Arista, 1985]
Nuel – Correspondence [Further, 2011]
Blut Aus Nord – Epitome IX [Debemur Morti Productions, 2011]
Chris Watson – Friday the 13th [Touch, 2000]
Transportation AAD – Pagoda [Darkestral, 2011]
On – Oh Run Slowly [Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier/Type, 2004/2009]
Oneohtrix Point Never – Remember [Software, 2011]
Alvin Lucier – Nothing Is Real (Matthias Kaul, Piano) [Wergo, 2005]
Henri Texier - Quand Tout S'arrete [Eurodisc, 1976]
Imbogodom - Borogmog's Clock [Thrill Jockey, 2011]
Tim Hecker – Sketch 5 [Kranky, 2011]
David Lynch & Alan R. Splet – In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) [I.R.S. Records, 1982]
Chris Watson – El Divisadero – The Telegraph [Touch, 2011]
Steve Reich – Come Out [Nonesuch, 1966/1987]
Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer – Retikhiy [ECM, 2011]
Craig Taborn - The Broad Day King [ECM, 2011]
Supersilent – 10.10 [Rune Grammofon, 2010]
Alexander Scriabin – Prelude No. 22 in G minor, Op. 11 (Racha Arodaky, piano) [Zig Zag, 2004]
Alexander Scriabin – Prelude No. 22 in G minor, Op. 11 (Evgeny Zarafiants, piano) [Naxos, 2000]
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FURTHER READING
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Website
http://www.philipsherburne.com/
SPIN
http://www.spin.com/writers/philip-sherburne
Resident Advisor
http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?exchange=45
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